The Cylian
Poppy is a flowering plant with blindingly bright white petals surrounding an
iridescent gold coloured center. The foliage is jagged, spiky and sharp enough
to latch onto leather without trouble. It is mainly used for its thick, milky
sap, which is a highly addictive narcotic, and a rather strong one at that, but
can also be used in deadly brews with the right levels of skill, which is
colloquially known as "Murdrum" in certain cities.

Appearance. The
Cylian Poppy is usually approximately two fores high at its maximum height in
the summer when it flourishes, but it can retract to as small as one palmspan
during the colder seasons. The stem is rather thin (around one
nailsbreadth), allowing the
plant to swing around as it needs to to latch onto its prey, which it latches
onto with its leaves and leeches off of for food while simultaneously releasing
a powerful shatír'ó'chón'cár (lit. "winged spirit") into the subject's body, not
only numbing them to the pain, but also causing them to fall asleep while still
in the plant's grasp.

It should be noted that this effect seems to be amplified based on the level of
sentience of the subject. Creatures with extremely high levels of sentience,
such as elves and
men, have even been known to become unknowingly addicted to the
shatír'ó'chón'cár and felt compelled to wander the area where they had been
caught in the plant's trap until they got caught in another one. This, after a
few months, usually results in the death of the victim as they become mindless
slaves to the plants by coming within five
peds of it due to what is
assumed to be some sort of aura emitted from it, making it mighty hard to escape
the call of the Poppy.

The leaves of the plant seem to have pulsating veins all over them and can vary
in length from three
nailsbreadths to a full
palmspan. The radius of the flower, however, is always around one third
larger than that, so as to hide the leaves from any people, whatever race they
may be, and to lure them into its trap. The Cylian Poppy flourishes in warmer
climates, but can retract its stem to avoid over exposing itself to the cold
should conditions temporarily cool. That said, the Poppy should never be exposed
to conditions too far below the freezing point of water for more than two moons,
or it will shrivel up to a
nailsbreadth and not come back up until conditions of room temperature or
better are reached or it dies for lack of food.

Territory.
The Cylian Poppy is found only within one league's radius of the
Thaelon Forest, particularly around
Ephirn's Lake, where it is believed to
have originated. It is unknown exactly how far the plant grows from the lake in
each direction due to the likelihood of a researcher accidentally getting
addicted during their research. They are able to escape the plant's grasp
because of their knowledge of its effects, but they must separate themselves
from their research permanently in order to avoid any residue shatír'ó'chón'cár
affecting them.

Usages.
The most common usage of the Cylian Poppy is as a narcotic, which is
administered either using the leaf in its basic form or through the extracted
sap, which is often modified with a pinch of
forget-me-nut powder to remove the urge to go on a quest to
Ephirn's Lake, a side effect of the
drug which made early dealers of the drug lose customers rather quickly.
However, every once in a while, dealers of the drug will "forget" to add the
forget-me-nut powder to the drug, and the user
is sacrificed to the plants to keep them alive after constantly being drained of
their sap. The drug can also be refined to the point of causing the brain of the
user to shut down completely, creating an instant and untraceable death.

Reproduction.
The reproduction of the Cylian Poppy is just as confusing as any other part of
it; it sends spores into the body of a victim who has died while still attached
to the leaf of the plant they were killed by. If a victim of the Poppy dies from
the from the plant, the plant senses the lack of pulse and releases pulses of
aura to speed up the decomposition of the body, before releasing tiny spores
into the body, which, once inside, reassemble into a seed like structure, which
eventually grows into a new flower.

Due to this form of reproduction requiring new generations to grow no more than
a few fores away from the previous, the plants often grow in thick clumps that
dot the Thaelon Forest.
The plant can spread further, however, if it mistakes an incredibly deep sleep
for death and sends spores into the host while it is still alive, who, with any
luck, will move around the forest, spreading the plant's seed. It should be
noted, however, that the plant can't live too far outside the Thaelon Forest. Travelers
have been found dead on the roads a few leagues from the forest with traces of
Cylian Poppy spores in their body. In these cases, the spores appear to be
shriveled up, leading many to draw a line directly outside of the forest and
declare it the extent of the plant's growth.

Myth/Lore.
Although it is unknown exactly how the Cylian Poppy originated, an interesting
tale concerning the subject is held by some of the people in Carmalad. They
believe that the plant is born of the spirit of Ephirn that was created when the
light elves refused to perform their
Rite of Return on him, but instead sunk him in what is now known as
Ephirn's Lake. They believe that his
spirit, still searching for the human woman he
sought after his life ended, continues to search for her, only to be
continuously foiled by the boundaries of the
Thaelon Forest. Other stories state that the reasons for the existence of
Ephirn's spirit aren't quite so romantic. They say that either his spirit is
angry for his death or the spirit is composed of all the hatred of
humanity he'd pent up over years of assisting
humans, who he considered less than him. The last one, however, is usually held
by those with a hatred towards elves in general, and is the least common of
these fables.

The entire plant is believed to have connection to the
Netherworlds, though again, this is
just unverified superstition, as are most things concerning the
Netherworlds. The sap is believed to be
usable in a brew with some vaninen concoction, a touch of veell elixir, and a
few ods of wizardleaf for a frightening potion
that, upon lighting, is said to summon a mystran hoard large enough to take out
a small town in minutes and haunt it for years on end. This may be mere myth
however, because no known person has ever been fool enough to light one of
these, and if they have, they haven't lived to tell of it, which, given the
power of a mystran, should not be
incredibly surprising.